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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

UN halts all food distribution in Rafah after running out of supplies in the southern Gaza city

UN halts all food distribution in Rafah after running out of supplies in the southern Gaza city

A reminder that Biden could — whenever he wants to — use his leverage to force Israel to open land routes to aid to stop the famine spreading from the north. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk. https://t.co/2jBl6dOHDZ — Richard Hall (@_RichardHall) May 21, 2024 The Associated Press reports: The United Nations says it has suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah due to lack of supplies and insecurity. It also said no aid trucks…

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Israeli soldiers and police assisting settlers that attack Gaza aid trucks

Israeli soldiers and police assisting settlers that attack Gaza aid trucks

The Guardian reports: Individual members of Israel’s security forces are tipping off far-right activists and settlers to the location of aid trucks delivering vital supplies to Gaza, enabling the groups to block and vandalise the convoys, according to multiple sources. Settlers intercepting the vital humanitarian supplies to the strip are receiving information about the location of the aid trucks from members of the Israeli police and military, a spokesperson from the main Israeli activist group behind the blockades told the…

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‘A watershed event’: ICC charges against Netanyahu first time court has gone after a Western leader

‘A watershed event’: ICC charges against Netanyahu first time court has gone after a Western leader

  Israel and the United States have both strongly condemned the International Criminal Court’s decision to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes charges, calling it “outrageous” and seeking support from other allies in opposing the court’s moves. On Monday, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan outlined specific charges against Netanyahu and Gallant, including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “extermination.” The ICC also sought arrest warrants for…

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ICC prosecutor’s applications for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Sinwar, Deif, and Haniyeh

ICC prosecutor’s applications for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Sinwar, Deif, and Haniyeh

  The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court asked a panel of international legal experts (Lord Justice Fulford, Judge Theodor Meron CMG, Amal Clooney, Danny Friedman KC, Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, Elizabeth Wilmshurst CMG KC) to assist him with evaluating evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza: For months, we have engaged in an extensive process of review and analysis. We have carefully examined each of the applications for arrest warrants, as well…

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The rise of Jewish terrorism and the failure of Israel

The rise of Jewish terrorism and the failure of Israel

The New York Times reports: Gush Emunim [or “Bloc of the Faithful,” a religious political movement determined to settle occupied territories] the and other right-wing groups saw the [Camp David] accords [signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978] as a shocking reversal. From this well of anger sprang a new campaign of intimidation [against Palestinians]. Rabbi Moshe Levinger, one of the leaders of Gush Emunim and the founder of the settlement in the…

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A long history of crime without punishment threatens not only Palestinians but also Israel itself

A long history of crime without punishment threatens not only Palestinians but also Israel itself

The New York Times reports: By the end of October, it was clear that no one was going to help the villagers of Khirbet Zanuta. A tiny Palestinian community, some 150 people perched on a windswept hill in the West Bank near Hebron, it had long faced threats from the Jewish settlers who had steadily encircled it. But occasional harassment and vandalism, in the days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, escalated into beatings and murder threats. The villagers made…

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Armed thugs (aka NYPD) trained by Israelis, attack and punch pro-Palestine protesters in Brooklyn

Armed thugs (aka NYPD) trained by Israelis, attack and punch pro-Palestine protesters in Brooklyn

NOW: As pro-Palestine protesters reached an intersection, officers rushed in and grabbed people out of the crowd seemingly at random Officers tackled multiple protesters to the ground and then proceeded to punch them pic.twitter.com/fyPfA8emyM — katie smith (@probablyreadit) May 18, 2024 The NYPD is seen slamming this protestor to the ground punching his chest with his hand around their neck. They never once resisted. Their head was also bleeding as they were transported to the police van. All for walking…

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Biden claps as Morehouse valedictorian calls for Gaza cease-fire in commencement speech

Biden claps as Morehouse valedictorian calls for Gaza cease-fire in commencement speech

HuffPost reports: Morehouse College valedictorian DeAngelo Fletcher called for a cease-fire in Gaza during his commencement speech on Sunday, receiving applause from both fellow students and guest President Joe Biden as his administration continues to face pushback from college students across the U.S. over his support for Israel. Biden sat behind the valedictorian during the ceremony at the historically Black college in Atlanta, where Fletcher spoke about the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the devastation it’s wrought. Fletcher, who…

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Medical workers evacuated from Gaza, but three Americans refuse to leave

Medical workers evacuated from Gaza, but three Americans refuse to leave

The Intercept reports: Some 20 American and British medical workers who had been unable to leave Gaza were evacuated from the European Hospital in Khan Younis on Friday, though three American members of medical missions refused to evacuate until Israel allows additional humanitarian workers to replace them. They remain at work, along with doctors and staff from separate medical missions, serving a population trapped in Gaza with no escape. The missions, as is often the case, had been scheduled to…

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Palestinian political prisoners targeted in Israel’s campaign of vengeance

Palestinian political prisoners targeted in Israel’s campaign of vengeance

The Observer reports: Marwan Barghouti spends his days huddled in a cramped, dark, solitary cell, with no way to tend to his wounds, and a shoulder injury from being dragged with his hands cuffed behind his back. Barghouti holds almost mythic status within Palestinian politics, seen as a figure whose potential to unify different factions has only grown during his 24 years in prison. The books, newspapers and tele­vision that he used to be able to access have been gone…

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Arrested. Injured. Suspended. Six NYC university students say they’ll keep protesting

Arrested. Injured. Suspended. Six NYC university students say they’ll keep protesting

NPR reports: At Columbia University, word was spreading among the student protesters who’d defied the university’s order to take down their pro-Palestinian encampment on a central lawn. Police were gathering outside the school’s locked gates. Arrests seemed imminent. It was the evening of April 30. Allie Wong, a doctoral student, was off campus when she heard what was happening. She rushed there and found a way to sneak in. Before the night was over, Wong would be one among nearly…

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Pro-Israel Jewish billionaires caught secretly plotting to crackdown student protests

Pro-Israel Jewish billionaires caught secretly plotting to crackdown student protests

Middle East Monitor reports: A group of prominent American Jewish billionaires and business leaders have been privately pressuring New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, to deploy the police against pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University, and even offered to pay for private investigators to assist the New York Police Department in handling the protests, according to a report by The Washington Post. The revelations, based on a WhatsApp chat log obtained by the newspaper, shed light on the group’s efforts…

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UN says it has no more food or tents for nearly 2 million people in Gaza

UN says it has no more food or tents for nearly 2 million people in Gaza

The Guardian reports: The UN has run out of tents and food to distribute to almost 2 million people in Gaza, the majority displaced from their homes and dependent on aid to stave off looming famine. UN officials told the Guardian on Wednesday afternoon that their warehouses were now completely empty south of the river dividing the northern third of the Gaza from the south, with no likelihood of resupply as long as the main entry points into the territory…

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‘Resist the normalization of evil’: Israeli reporter Amira Hass on Palestine and journalism

‘Resist the normalization of evil’: Israeli reporter Amira Hass on Palestine and journalism

  Our guest is the Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass, the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent 30 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank. She is the recipient of the 2024 Columbia Journalism Award, and on Wednesday she addressed the graduating class of the Columbia Journalism School in New York City. Hass discusses the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, why journalists should “resist the normalization of evil and injustice,” Israel’s recent censorship of Al Jazeera,…

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How the war on Gaza is shaping the 2024 elections — and the future of the Democratic Party

How the war on Gaza is shaping the 2024 elections — and the future of the Democratic Party

Samer Badawi writes: In a public park just outside Cleveland, Ohio, a small plaque marks the last stop on the Underground Railroad, the secret network that helped tens of thousands of enslaved people flee to freedom in the decades leading up to America’s Civil War. Etched into a paved walkway that leads to the water, the marker at Lakewood Park is easy to miss, a fitting emblem of a region that is nothing if not understated. Yet it was here,…

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Amnesty International: Syrian refugees face detention, torture and death on return

Amnesty International: Syrian refugees face detention, torture and death on return

The security forces in Syria have subjected Syrian refugees who returned to the country to detention, disappearance and horrific torture – including sexual violence – Amnesty International said today in a shocking new report. Amnesty’s 51-page report – You’re Going To Your Death – documents appalling human rights violations committed by Syrian intelligence officers against 66 returnees, including 13 children. Five people died in custody, while the fate of 17 forcibly disappeared people remains unknown. The report – coming against…

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